The recent tragedies surrounding two Indonesian maids in Saudi Arabia has once again turned the spotlight toward migrant abuse, calling attention to the lack of labour protections for an increasingly transnaitional workforce in the Middle East. In just the span of a few weeks, separate incidents involving domestic workers from Asia have spurred a global [...]

Jakarta. Sumiati binti Salan Mustapa arrived in Saudi Arabia four months ago in search of a better life. Instead, the domestic worker is now in critical condition in the hospital, her body covered with injuries allegedly inflicted by her employers, including serious cuts around her lips and mouth. Sumiati, 23, has been treated at King [...]

Amnesty International urged on Oct 27 the Saudi Arabian King to halt the execution of a young Sri Lankan woman who has lost her appeal against a death sentence for a murder committed when she says she was 17 years old. Rizana Nafeek, who was arrested in May 2005 on charges of killing an infant in [...]

The employment agreement covering 290 Vietnamese berry pickers who worked in Swedish fields last summer, dozens of whom still remain in Europe, should never have been approved, according to a Swedish union. Berry pickers arrested for locking up bosses (11 Aug 10) Hungry berry pickers shoot birds for food (2 Aug 10) Vietnamese workers in [...]

ILO, Global Network, International Domestic Workers Network (IDWN), in collaboration with KSPSI, KSBSI, KSPI confederations in Indonesia, Domestic Worker advocates Jala PRT and Jakerla PRT, co-organised with Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) to gather domestic workers groups, trade unions, labour organisations and women’s NGOs in Jakarta to discuss the results of the 2010 International Labour [...]

A report commissioned by the IUF and released on 1st October details extensive human rights violations at the Tata-controlled Powai Tea Estate in Assam, India. In Cold Blood: Death By Poison, Death By Bullets examines the death in May this year of 25 year-old Powai worker Gopal Tanti, who collapsed at work while spraying pesticides. Mr Tanti was [...]

Each summer, thousands of berry pickers from Thailand arrive in Finland with the hopes of earning a bundle of cash. Although Finnish berry companies depend heavily on the workers, their wages and conditions are substandard. Around 2,000 berry pickers from Thailand made their way into Finnish forests this summer. The migrant workers carry out backbreaking [...]

As a maid working in Saudi Arabia, Lahanda Purage Ariyawathie suffered at the hands of her Saudi employer and his wife, who skewered her body with at least 24 nails and needles (pictured). Her case was unusually brutal, but the abuse of domestic workers in the Middle East is all too common. Huge numbers of [...]

Protesters gathered outside the Embassy for Saudi Arabia on 30th August, on behalf of L.G Ariyawathie, the Sri Lankan maid who had 23 nails hammered into her body by her Saudi employers. The protesters called for an end to the torture being faced by Sri Lanka workers in foreign countries and asked that migrant worker rights be [...]

Mrs. L.T. Ariyawathi (49), a mother of three has returned from Saudi Arabia after less than five months of employment. Within a short time of her return she was hospitalized for an operation to remove 24 nails from her foot and a needle implanted by her employer. Doctors who x-rayed her at Kamburupitiya hospital have [...]